That Busy Time Again...

Heading towards a new major YuGiOh! release is always my busiest time on Squidoo. Over the past while I've developed a reputation for bringing news to the playing community first, and as people start to look at my lenses first, before they go anywhere else, I want to make sure that I don't let them down.

There's lenses to be built on the prominent cards. The ones already built need constantly refreshed and touched up. Busy times. Talking of which, I should be off doing something else...

Rinse and Repeat

That's kind of the secret of Squidoo, isn't it? Find something that works, and do similiar over and over again. That's what I set out to do with quizzes this year, although I must admit that while the ones I have all get good traffic, I'm slightly bereft of ideas for more. One I did spot a gap for the other day was another Pokemon one. The first quiz about the Black and White era of Pokemon has had a whole heap of traffic, so this one, all about Reshiram and Zekrom should hopefully do the same.

Cricket Attax - I'm Fascinated

As you'll know I'm a huge fan of all things Sports Card related. You might not know I'm a huge cricket fan. That's why I'm really, really interested to see how this one - Cricket Attax - works out.

You take the biggest sports trading card manufacturer around, Topps (behind things like Match Attax and WWE Slam Attax) and mix with the Indian Premier League of Cricket (one of the biggest sporting brands in the world), and come up with a product called Cricket Attax.

It sounds like it should be a match made in heaven, but is the Indian marketplace ready for a Collectible Sports Card product? It's going to be fascinating to find out!

Doctor Who Monster Invasion and Micro Figures - Letting My Geekery Run Wild

OK, so its been Doctor Who week for me on Squidoo, and it's taken me back to the days when I was lined up in front of the TV to see what adventures Tom Baker and K9 would get up to next. Whilst I've never become a serious obsessive, I've been a big fan ever since. That's why I've enjoyed the little two lens project I've been working on, on two new Doctor Who Collectible lines.

First up is Doctor Who Micro Figures. These are simply great representations of some of the main characters from the new series. The first wave contains ten models and there's more to come over the next few months. There's cool dioramas to build too. Fantastic!

Secondly, you'll all know by now that I love Trading Cards, so when Doctor Who and Trading Cards get combined, then you'll realise I'm in geek heaven. That's exactly what's happened with a fantastic new 90 card range called Doctor Who Monster Invasion. Happy days :)

The Grey Boxes...

OK, so the Google traffic mysteriusly re-appeared the day after last week's post - turns out I was far from alone. According to some, they also saw lenses dissappear from the rankings a couple of days later too. That one seems to have been a shorter lapse, and I didn't notice it at all in my stats.

This all goes suspicisouly hand-in-hand with broken image links appearing all over Squidoo. Many have commented that the Google traffic only stopped on newer lenses. Is Google prepared to give a long-standing page the benefot of the doubt if it temporarily has broken links on it, but punishing newer pages. Not sure, but an interesting thought.

Just The 19 Copies Then...

OK, so Google seems to have forgotten all about a few of my top ranked, and interlinked lenses overnight. Smashing. Of course on noticing the sudden traffic plummet I headed off to investigate, starting with the highest ranked of them.

Hmmm. It's a lens (like many of mine) all about a Trading Card release. The central and most important part for players and collectors is the card list. A quick Google search reveals the small matter of 19 copies of my version kicking around on various websites, blogs, retailer's sites, etc.

Of course all of those writers may have painstakingly compiled the list by hand in the same manner I did. Erm. And then chose to format the list in exactly the same way I did. Or maybe not. Of course, it could never be proven as plagiarism since my original is simply a compilation of readily available information for the convenience of players.

Ho-hum. Of course this may or may not have anything to do with Google's negative change of heart towards that group of lenses, but nonetheless it's a touch annoying.

Gift Guides

One of the biggest successes I've had on Squidoo so far was with a couple of fairly straightforward Christmas Lenses. The idea was simple - take a couple of hobbies I write about a lot, and create Christmas Gift guides, aimed at people that need to buy gifts for hobbyists but don't know the first thing about the hobby. They both worked extremely well and so one of the goals for this year was to expand the theory. Make them 'not just for Christmas'. Make more of them. We'll see if it works. Here's an example.